It’s Three Couples and a Baby in One Great New Novel

Yeah, yeah. We all know that it takes a village to raise a child. But Gina Frangello, author of Every Kind of Wanting, has some new thoughts on the topic.

The book, which is told from multiple perspectives, concerns three families whose complex ties to one another get more complex by the day. First, we meet Chad and Miguel, a gay couple in Chicago, who are on a quest to have a baby. Then there’s Lina, Miguel’s formerly drug-addicted sister, who narrates much of the novel. There’s also Gretchen, Chad’s sister who’s lending her eggs for the endeavor and Emily, an old friend of Miguel’s who will act as the surrogate.

As if this “community baby plan” doesn’t sound complicated enough, almost constant drama ensues. Different people have different expectations, some partners cheat, others realize they weren’t quite as comfortable with the arrangement as they initially thought.

Frangello’s characters are flawed but sympathetic, and she brings up important points about race, class and sexuality. Read this if you’ve ever wondered how you’d fare in such a situation—or if you’re just deeply curious about how such nontraditional pregnancies might play out in the real world.